2 House panels endorse ARMM poll postponement

MANILA, Philippines -  Two committees of the House of Representatives yesterday endorsed a bill postponing the election of new officials in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) scheduled in August this year.

The committee on suffrage and electoral reform and the committee on Muslim affairs separately took a vote on the bill after three Muslim congressmen walked out on their colleagues for failing to convince them to defer the voting and hold hearings in the ARMM.

Before walking out, Sulu Rep. Tupay Loong said he was giving up his chairmanship of the Muslim affairs committee in protest over the decision of his colleagues to take a vote on postponing the ARMM elections.

Reps. Nur Jaafar of Tawi-Tawi and Acmad Tomawis of the party-list group Ang Laban ng Indihinong Filipino joined Loong in filing out of the hearing room. Three others, including Maguindanao Rep. Simeon Datumanong, followed.

The two committees apparently took the cue from a statement of President Aquino favoring the postponement and the synchronization of the ARMM balloting with the election of national and local officials in May 2013.

The suffrage committee, chaired by Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr., voted 23-4 to endorse the postponement bill. On the other hand, the vote in the Muslim affairs committee was 13-0.

Since there was still quorum in the Muslim affairs panel despite the walkout of Loong and two others, Maguindanao Rep. Bai Sandra Sema, the committee’s vice chairperson, took over from Loong to preside over the voting.

Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II said he expected the two committees to shortly submit their report.

“We hope to pass the postponement bill before our first break this year on March 26. Time is of the essence since the ARMM election is scheduled in August,” he said.

Under the measure, Aquino would be authorized to appoint officers-in-charge (OICs) to run the autonomous Muslim region between September this year and until the elections in 2013.

Gonzales and other members of the majority defended the proposal to have the President appoint OICs.

Gonzales said elective officials with fixed terms are not allowed to hang on to their posts in a holdover capacity.

Since there would be vacancies if the ARMM elections were postponed, the President can appoint OICs without violating the law creating the autonomous Muslim region, he said.

Deputy Speaker Pablo Garcia said the Supreme Court had ruled as early as 1946 that it is unconstitutional for elective officials to stay on as holdover officers.

He said the tribunal reiterated such a ruling in a 1992 case.

He said the President’s authority to appoint temporary officials is part of his “executive power.”

Opposing the proposed deferment of the ARMM balloting, Datumanong, a former justice secretary, said he doubted whether Congress could postpone the election.   

He said the Constitution does not mention ARMM officers as among the officials whose election Congress could defer.

Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said it is against democratic practice to scrap the August election and let appointed officials rule the autonomous region.

He also said postponing the balloting would also entail an amendment to the law creating the ARMM, which would require the conduct of a plebiscite in the region.

Davao del Sur Rep. Mark Douglas Cagas said allowing appointed officials to run the ARMM would be “undemocratic and unjust.”